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Branford Keeps it Going by Beating Berlin

Branford Senior Legion had no trouble versus Berlin in its opening game of the Southern Super Regional portion of the State Tournament on July 26 as Post 83 breezed to a 7-1 victory at Stamford’s Cubeta Stadium.

Branford scored two runs in the first inning, four in the seventh, and another in the eighth in dispatching of Berlin. Tyler Forgione had four RBI for Post 83, who received five shutout innings from winning pitcher Dawson Frawley and four solid relief frames from Dan Driscoll.

Rich Balzano’s club improved to 32-2 and will face the winner of Cheshire-Stamford at Cubeta at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 27. If Branford wins that game, it will be on the doorstep of returning to the state championship for the second straight season and sixth time since 2005. The best-of-3 championship series is also at Cubeta, starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 2 with Game 2 at 11 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 3, and the ‘if necessary’ Game 3 at 2:30 p.m. that same day.

Berlin dropped to 21-13 and is one loss from elimination in the double-elimination portion of the tourney.

“The key to the game was our spectacular defense. You can go around the horn and every player made an outstanding catch in this game. Dawson and Dan scattered five this between them,” said Coach Balzano. “What also helped us was that we received contributions from our No. 9, and 1, and 2 hitters in Chris Stankiewicz, Mike Funaro, and Tyler Criscuolo.”

Funaro doubled to lead off the bottom of the first and scored with Nick Perrelli on Forgione’s two-out double against Berlin starter Taylor Luciani.

In the second, Frawley worked out of trouble by getting a pop up with two outs and the bases loaded.

Branford then scored four in the seventh off reliever Nick Naples for a 6-0 lead. Stankiewicz got it going with a home run to left-center field. Funaro then dropped down a bunt single, followed by singles from Criscuolo and Kyle Hart that filled the bases. Perrelli hit a sacrifice fly that brought home Funaro to make it 4-0, followed by Forgione’s two-run double that plated Criscuolo and Hart for the six-run advantage.

Berlin singled home a run in the top of eight, but Branford came right back in the bottom half as Funaro reached on an error and scored on Criscuolo’s single.

Earlier in the week, Branford needed to defeat Orange twice without losing to keep its season alive on July 24 and Post 83 did exactly that on their way to the next phase of the State Tournament.

After Branford took a 3-0 home loss in Game 1 of its best-of-3 series against Post 127 on July 23, the two teams were back at it the next day in the final of the Southern Sectional portion of the state bracket. Orange needed one victory to end Post 83’s season, but Balzano’s club refused to let that happen by earning a 4-0 win in Game 2 that forced a winner-take-all Game 3, which Branford won 3-2 in nail-biting fashion at the MacVeigh Complex.

Post 83 trailed Orange 2-0 in the deciding game before an RBI double from Hart made it 2-1 in the fifth, followed by Will Coleman’s tying double and Stankiewicz’s go-ahead RBI double in the sixth. Winning pitcher Mike Keinz then got the last batter of the game to pop out to first with the tying run on third in the top of the ninth.

“After yesterday, we knew we needed to come out to play today and give 110 percent. Once we got that first win, the pressure was back on Orange,” said Stankiewicz. “All our pitchers had great stuff today. We fell behind [in the second game], but then our bats came alive.”

Zone 2 champion Branford won five of its six games this season versus zone runner-up Orange this season, which saw its campaign end at 26-9.

“Orange is an outstanding team, but I didn’t think we would go quietly and our kids were psyched up for Game 2 today. It didn’t surprise me to see us come out amped up and playing really hard to try and draw even,” Coach Balzano said. “I wasn’t so sure that we would storm back down 2-0 in Game 3, but we ran their pitcher’s [Mike Appel] count way up. He was over 100 pitches going into the sixth inning and that’s when we jumped on him. It worked out well for us, for sure.”

In Game 1 of the series, Mike Schettino had a no-hitter for 6.2 innings and wound up working all nine innings (State Tournament games are nine innings instead of the usual seven). However, Schettino allowed a run on a two-out double in the seventh and allowed two more on wild pitches in the eighth. The seventh inning also featured Orange’s Devin Belinski running over Branford catcher BJ Massey while getting thrown out at the plate by center fielder Hart. That resulted in Belinski’s ejection and a subsequent suspension for Games 2 and 3. Meanwhile, Orange starting pitcher Doug Rives gave up just five hits and one walk while fanning seven to put the defending state and Northeast Regional champs on the brink of elimination.

“Mike did an excellent job and worked hard the whole game. A few got away from him and Orange had some timely hits that led to our undoing,” Coach Balzano said. “This game was not characteristic of how we play. Orange’s pitcher did a good job of mixing his pitches and kept us off-balance, but we looked at third strikes and swung at ball fours. We never got the leadoff man on and there was never an inning where we really threatened.”

However, Branford rebounded to take Game 2 by a 4-0 score the following afternoon behind the sterling pitching of starter Dylan Millhouse, who gave up just four hits in eight innings for the win, after which southpaw Sean Halligan retired all three batters he faced in the ninth. Post 83 plated three in the fourth inning as Hart singled home Criscuolo, Forgione’s bases-loaded walk scored Hart, and then a fielder’s choice groundout from Coleman scored Perrelli. Branford tacked on its fourth run in the eighth when Stankiewicz reached on an error, scoring Forgione. Post 83 scored all its runs against Orange starter Nick Fusco.

Halligan was quickly back on the mound for Game 3, gave up a run on a squeeze bunt in the fourth, and was relieved by Keinz in the fifth. Keinz pitched the rest of the game, allowing just one run on a sacrifice fly in his initial frame. Down 2-0 in the fifth, Criscuolo singled and scored on Hart’s double to get Branford within a run. Then in the sixth, Forgione doubled, Coleman doubled to tie it, and, with two outs, Stankiewicz lashed a fastball to left-center that brought home Coleman and put Post 103 ahead for good at 3-2. All three runs were plated versus Post 127 starter Appel.

The left was rest to winning pitcher Keinz, who allowed a leadoff walk on a full count in the top of the ninth. That runner then stole second, yet Keinz got a pop up, a ground out, and then one more pop up against Orange cleanup hitter Matt Ronai to seal the dramatic victory that sent Orange packing and Branford to the Super Regional.

“In the last inning, coach came out to calm me down after I walked the first batter. With two outs, I was fully confident that we’d get the last guy. I saw him walk to home plate and he was nervous. He swung at a ball on 2-0 and popped out to end the game,” Keinz said. “This is what I’ve dreamed for my whole life. It was a great feeling. It was awesome.”